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confirmed with one or two minor modifications made after a Public Local
Inquiry had been held. Steps are now being taken to acquire the land and
premises specified by these Orders and Sir William Holford, F.R.I.B.A.,
M.T.P.I., has been appointed as architect to design the new blocks of flats.
It will be remembered that the initial success of the redevelopment
of Kensal New Town depends on synchronising the displacements from the
condemned houses with the erection by the Council of 134 new flats in the
Treverton Street area. It is expected that these flats will be completed
in the late summer of 1958.
Having achieved this first success in dealing with the redevelopment
of Kensal New Town, the Council lost no time in advancing their plans, and
two further areas (comprising 77 premises) in phase 1 were declared to be
Clearance Areas; Compulsory Purchase Orders have been submitted to the
Minister for confirmation.
In addition to the steps taken in regard to Kensal New Town, a
small area of unfit houses in Portland Road has also been declared by the
Council to be a Clearance Area, and Compulsory Purchase Orders have been made
and submitted to the Minister for confirmation.
Although the work of dealing with slum clearance is given priority,
the task of repairing and maintaining other houses in the borough in a fit
state of habitation is of vital importance. It was expected that the
introduction of the Housing Repairs and Rents Act, 1954» would enable the
Council to resume the extremely valuable work of repairing houses under
Section 9 of the Housing Act, which economic circumstances had brought to a
standstill. Section 9 enabled the Council to require the repair of a house
which was in any respect unfit for human habitation and which could be made
fit at reasonable cost. The 1954 Act deleted the words "in any respect" and
since then a number of Court judgements have made it clear that Section 9
standard of repair is a low one. For example, in one appeal by an owner
against a Section 9 notice, the Court deleted 22 items from the 44 specified;
of the remaining 22 items, all except 7 could have been dealt with under the
Public Health (London) Act, 1936.
Careful consideration was given to this position and, on the
15th October, 1957, the Council decided that owing to the lowering of the
standard set by the Housing Acts, the position had been reached in which
repairs required under the Public Health (London) Act, 1936, are not
substantially different from those which can be required under Section 9 of
the Housing Act, 1957» especially as the limited repairs now possible under
Section 9 frequently would be insufficient to justify a rent increase under
the Rent Act, 1957, with the result that in such cases the premises would
remain "not repairable at reasonable cost."
In these circumstances, the Council proposed that in the areas
previously designated for repairs under Section 9 of the Housing Act,
systematic inspection of dwelling houses should be undertaken and, where
necessary, the remedying of defects should be accomplished by action under
the Public Health (London) Act, 1936. This simplified procedure will
eliminate the necessity for the preparation of detailed specifications and,
moreover, urgent repairs can be required under the London County Council
(General Powers) Act, 1955, which enables the Council to deal more
expeditiously with certain types of nuisances where an early remedy is
essential.
Routine inspection of houses in areas throughout the borough
commenced in October, 1957. By the end of the year, 510 houses were
inspected and in 274 cases notices requiring repairs had been served. The
work of the routine inspection of houses requiring repair is being pursued
energetically, because it is felt that, with the higher rents that will,
in many cases, be recoverable under the Rent Act, 1957, owners will be in
a better position to carry out repairs than they have been able to do since
1939, when the majority of houses were placed under the control of the
Rent and Mortgage Increase Restrictions Acts.